Government of Israel, Mainstream Media in Dreamland

A Palestinian Choice (Jerusalem Post-Opinion)

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“Like true gluttons for punishment, we are trying the same tactic again, this time with the same discredited leader.”

Excerpts;

Starting with Yasser Arafat following the 1993 Oslo Accords, Israel and the US have a long record of choosing “pragmatic” Palestinian leaders, attempting to prop them up, and watching with dismay as the guns and butter invested are squandered and turned against Israel. The latest disappointment has been Mahmoud Abbas, whose abundant Western-supplied weaponry was captured by the ton by Hamas, which easily overran Gaza, and sent Abbas’s forces packing.

Now, like true gluttons for punishment, we are trying the same tactic again, this time with the same discredited leader. Abbas never did anything about corruption, would not confront Hamas, and failed to touch the Fatah old guard that so discredited him among the Palestinian people.

On Eve of Olmert-Abbas Meeting, Prisoner List Ready

PA Forces Receive Weapons [Weapons Transfer from Jordan via Allenby Crossing]

No IDF Arrests in West Bank [Judea and Samaria] for 3rd Night in Row

Excerpt;
IDF “limiting operations so as not to work against 170 Fatah operatives the IDF promised not to pursue in exchange for their renouncing terror.”

“I’m Wheelchair-Bound, and the Terrorists Can Go Free?!”, Hillel Fendel (Israel National News)

“In the past, the majority of prisoners who have signed such statements have in fact returned to terrorism after their release.”

Despite the appointment of… Salaam Fayad as prime minister, no one believes that Abbas will take action either against militias or to reform Fatah. Yet Fayad has become the new Abbas, the moderate who will save the day.

Accordingly, Israel has agreed to temporarily stop hunting some 200 wanted Fatah terrorists who sign a statement saying they will not return to terrorist activity. In the past, the majority of prisoners who have signed such statements have in fact returned to terrorism after their release. In addition, Israel has agreed to allow Nayef Hawatmeh, the leader of the PLO faction that committed the 1974 Ma’alot massacre of 26 Israelis, most of them children, to come from Damascus to Ramallah for a PLO meeting.

It is difficult to imagine how granting entry to this aging terrorist will help Fayad or Abbas. In any case, the more salient question is: help them do what? First Arafat, then Abbas, and now Fayad created expectations that they will finally take Israel’s yes for an answer, stop fighting Israel, and start building a Palestinian state.

If the Palestinians became serious about state building rather than war fighting, the shift would be obvious. Instead of rejecting every Israeli effort to create joint economic projects, such as joint industrial zones, the Palestinian leadership would welcome them and protect them from attack. Instead of using its media to foment hatred and promote “martyrdom” against Israel, the Palestinian leadership would start undoing the years of education for war and begin educating for peace.